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Social Media Crime Blotter: Law and Order Edition

I took a couple weeks off of the Social Media Crime Blotter for a couple of reasons. One was that there was an awful lot of news going on that rather overshadowed our fun little corner of Mashable. The other was that the crime blotter feeds were really dominated by the whole sex crimes against minors. It isn't that those types of stories aren't worth reporting, but they are reported with a bit too much frequency, mainly because (as the NBC Dateline franchise has found out), scaring parents into thinking the Internet is nothing but pedophiles is a great way to run up your ratings.

I'm not anti-ratings or anything, but I do have a few ethical bones left in my body, and I just can't force myself to scare the crap out of you guys with some overblown stories that have little to do with the Internet and more to do with the dark side of human kind just so we can make a few extra bucks over here. I'll leave that to the Catch a Predator folks.

Holier than thou statements aside, we do have a few interesting stories here this week. The common thread seems to be some subtle but significant changes in the ways that the courts and the legislature are trying view the way we click the buttons on our computers.

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In this issue:Restraining Orders: Don't Come Within Five TraceRoute Hops Of Me.Boasting About Guns Ok. Boasting About Using Them, Not.My Mommy Said It Was OK To Read Mashable.

Jail Your Friends for Fun and ProfitSILive, the source for all things Staten Island, is reporting that a judge last Wednesday is letting stand the ruling that a New York teen broke the law when she initiated a MySpace friend request to three folks she was required by a restraining order not to contact.

Melisa Fernino, 16, of West Brighton, used a MySpace "friend request" to contact a 43-year-old woman and her two daughters, who previously obtained a Family Court order of protection against her, prosecutors charge.

I'm almost certain that at least part of the motivation behind the judge's decision is the media fueled awareness campaign about "cyber-bullying." The thinking undoubtably goes, "If contacting someone online can lead a child to eventual suicide, then it certainly should fall under the realm of restraining orders."

I can't help but wonder what sort of abuses this will lead to down the line. Restraining orders, at least in my part of the country, are amazingly easy to obtain. A temporary restraining order can be gotten without even showing an ounce of need to the courts, and violating that temporary restraining order carries the same weight as violating a permanent one. Along those same lines, fabricating a point of contact by way of a social network (let alone email or web comment) is amazingly simple even for the least tech savvy among us.

In essence, by ruling in this manner, the judge has set the stage for malicious folk to have a three step plan to jail anyone they so choose.

SILive is calling the case "potentially landmark." I agree.

Penn State Takes It One Step Too Far. Again.I'm really starting to wonder exactly what the heck is going on up at the State Pen Penn State. This is the second time recent memory that one or more of their students has landed in some real hot water over statements made about the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech. If you recall, during a past Social Media Crime Blotter, we chronicled the Halloween costumes of a number of Penn State students (they went as VATech victims, seen right).

Apparently the sympathy for the VATech shooter doesn't end there, however. This Wednesday, MyCrimeSpace dug up a story of a fellow, Steven Voneida, from PSU who published on his MySpace profile a poem entitled "the Ballad of Cho Seung-hui." Cho Seung-hui was the shooter who killed 32 people and then himself during a rampage on the Virginia Tech campus.

In addition, Voneida’s profile also threatened, “Someday I will make the Virginia Tech incident look like a trip to an amusement park,” according to the press release.

Voneida was convicted of transmitting communications containing a threat to injure and faces a max of 5 years behind bars.

Illinois to Require Parental Permission to Participate in Social NetworksIn what has to be one of the most retarded ideas since The Hottie and the Nottie, the Illinois state legislature is trying to pass a law requiring all underage state residents to have written permission from their parent or legal guardians before participating in an online social network. Quotes from the Suburban Chicago News shows evidence that some folks involved in the process seem vaguely aware of the possible challenges involved with creating or enforcing such a law (my emphasis added):

Cross and Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow acknowledged the proposed laws are aggressive and that lawmakers could face some obstacles in getting them passed. Some judges might feel some of the proposals could violate freedom of speech, Glasgow said.

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